Just been listening on the car radio to one one of the other Jones boys, Eddie saying that the England rugby team still isn't good enough to win the World Cup because he doesn't have enough leaders on the pitch.

He wants 10 in the squad, players who lead by example and are prepared to bollock others who aren't doing their jobs to the same standard.

As has been said many times, the current Pools squad looks bereft of leaders and organisers - do we even have 2?

Hopefully that's something Dave Jones and his coaching staff will start to address as soon as possible.

I cant off top of my head picture what style of football etc Jones usually plays?

Signing Howard from us always sticks in my head as it was such a relief, did he prefer a big man up top generally?

Could now be the time?

More Little and Large, target man and a striker playing off the target man. Kenny Miller and Dean Sturridge at Wolves, Jay Bothroyd and Peter Whittingham at Cardiff.

It'll be a surprise if he doesn't start off with Paynter and Amond up front!

You know I hate this idea that you need people to be giving others a bollocking on the pitch and that it constitutes leadership. I would argue quite the opposite.

However what you do need is a team full of talkers and organizers who show leadership through their collective actions putting their bodies on the line for the cause and covering for teammates etc.

Back to the post the other day, Simon Walton spent all game bollocking everyone else on the pitch but I would call his example anti-leadership

OK, my bad for using the word bollocking. 'Vehement encouragement' if you like.

Anything is preferable to the apathetic retreating into their shells that too many Pools players have been doing this season. I wasn't at the Crawley game but Loughlin said on the radio it was obvious that half the team wasn't trying. Surely that deserved a reaction from the guys who were putting their bodies on the line?

Fair point, well made..............

At times it is easier to just Do it Yourself.

I never got the impression it was ever a team in the recognised sense. They seemed to be a bunch of iindividuals who always looked like a bunch of triallists in their first match behind closed doors and carried on through the season in the same style.
They just don't seem to have an understanding with their fellow players, no communication, no desire, just stuttering their way through 90 minutes.

My comment wasn't aimed at you MDKMF more at the general view that bollockings are what constitutes a leader or captain. I think Snowy uses some good words above, communication and desire for the team and each other.

Get a team full of quiet, apathetic individuals and you are screwed. So I totally agree that Pools lack leadership on the pitch, like snowy says a group of timid, technically decent players but no team cohesion or desire to back it up

By leaders I presume you all actually mean good footballers?

The last thing we need is gobshites on the pitch that are actually shite.

Players that lack confidence need to be surrounded by players that they believe in, and have great confidence.

There are plenty of so called hard men playing local footy, love having a go at others, but are just shit at the game.

Going back to when we had a decent team we had characters and leaders all over the pitch but none of them shouted and bawled and I agree with Colonel in the sense that they lead mainly by being good footballers. People like Barron, Westwood, Tinkler, Humphreys, Nelson, Darrell Clarke all good players but good people as well who forged a good team spirit and togetherness. Football is more about organisation, confidence, belief and ability than screaming at people.

I tell you what summed up the current dressing room fairly recently in the Cambridge debacle when we conceded it was largely just heads down and back to the half way line without even looking at each other apart from young Martin at left back who was trying to gee his team mates up! Then for the fourth or fifth goal the young kid got absolutely skinned and two or three senior players started having a pop at him. I thought that was really poor especially when they didn't have the bottle to call each other out. So we need some better players and better characters in the dressing then we need to start winning more often then you might even see a couple of the current squad become 'leaders'.

Fistpump Walton springs to mind as a gobshite on the pitch that was actually shite

Compton, Walton... is it official 2013/14 Season Remembrance Day or what?

Scott Flinders. Jack Baldwin. Luke James. IOR.

Knock yourselves out.

Loan Star has IOR covered with all of his specialist info.

Not a day goes by where I don't think about Nialle Rodney and what could have been if he was good at football.

There was only two things stopping him from being a great footballer ...





...his feet.

He was a right fat bastard as well, his back end and legs reminded me of Marco Gabbiadini.

Do you remember that overhead kick against Bradford though? It was the only time his limbs moved in an appropriate and convincing manner for the limbs of a professional footballer. It could have only been pure luck and only time all of his movements aligned at the right time. Like the theory of putting a 1,000 Monkeys in a room with typewriter that in an unlimited amount of time they would type the letters in the correct sequence that recreated the works of Shakespeare.

I reckon you could put some message board posters in a room with a dictionary, thesaurus, lined paper and crayons for an infinite time and they still couldn't come up with 'Topsy and Tim go to the Dentist'!!!!

The thing is you get more opportunity for interaction in rugby. A footy captain can't stop and hold a pep talk every five minutes.
Leading by example is great in that it lends weight to the hands-on leadership part. But in the round ball game all you can really follow it up with is clapping your hands, shouting a bit, waving your arms about.

Depends how you define gobshites, to me it's someone who shouts their way through a match, but not a psycho. There's been plenty of silent assassins on the pitch over the years.
There's been plenty of good footballers who are gobshites, it is possible to combine the two, unless you imagine all 'good ' footballers are quiet , studious types ( ). There's a good percentage of talented thicko's playing who need 'pointing in the right direction ' on the pitch.
Nice if they all had Degrees in Football Theory, but they don't.